Jimmy Carter Powers Half of His Hometown With Solar

Jimmy Carter was the first president to put solar panels on the White House in 1979. Back then, it was a symbolic gesture, a hope that this strange alternative energy would one day pan out. "It can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people," he said at the time . Nearly four decades later, the promise of solar energy has arrived and Carter is taking full advantage of its potential. Earlier this year, he commissioned SolAmerica to create a solar farm on 10 acres of his land in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Today, that farm is supplying half of his town's electricity needs. It's expected to supply 1.3 megawatts of electricity annually , the equivalent of burning 3,600 tons of coal. And that's not all. Carter went ahead and had 324 solar panels installed on the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library , which w...